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<title>Day 3: Protection by Pheonix_Outside</title>
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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/29292507">Day 3: Protection</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Pheonix_Outside/pseuds/Pheonix_Outside'>Pheonix_Outside</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Huskerdust Week 2021 [3]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Hazbin Hotel (Web Series)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Alastor Being a Jerk (Hazbin Hotel), Fights, Holding Hands, Hurt Husk (Hazbin Hotel), Hurt/Comfort, Husk is Bad At Feelings (Hazbin Hotel), Implied/Referenced Alcohol Abuse/Alcoholism, M/M, Panic Attacks, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Protective Angel Dust (Hazbin Hotel), Veteran Husk (Hazbin Hotel), or it's implied</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2021-02-09</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2021-02-09</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-13 06:15:25</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Graphic Depictions Of Violence</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,748</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/29292507</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/Pheonix_Outside/pseuds/Pheonix_Outside</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Husk and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Angel Dust/Husk (Hazbin Hotel)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Huskerdust Week 2021 [3]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/2149431</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>4</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>33</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Day 3: Protection</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Husk wished he hadn’t woken up today.</p><p>It had started off badly, with Alastor waking him up just to be obnoxious. He knew for a fact that the bastard had known how little sleep Husk had gotten that night. In fact, he’d gotten maybe a few hours, tops.</p><p>Not enough, in his opinion. But then again, he’d sleep for a year, if he could.</p><p>And on top of that, they were practically out of booze, <em> and </em>he was hungover from the night before.</p><p>Then, the worst happened, the one remaining bottle of booze in the entire fucking hotel was accidentally knocked over by Niffty.</p><p><em> Great</em>.</p><p>And now Husk was walking his way back to the hotel after Alastor sent him to buy more. When he was hungover and feeling like shit. Because that was obviously the right fucking thing to do.</p><p>Alastor knew how today was going. It was fucking obvious, and that bastard just always seemed to know shit regardless. And he was <em> contributing </em>to it!</p><p>Husk felt like his blood was boiling. He was absolutely livid. If he couldn’t drink away his hangover, he could at least try to sleep more, but no, he had to go get the booze.</p><p>Sure, he liked good booze and wanted more, but he wanted a break, and he wasn’t getting one. And it wasn’t like Alastor was desperate for more booze, himself. He’d done this just to fuck with Husk.</p><p>He dragged his feet as he walked, and he felt like his usual slouch was even worse.</p><p>“Oh, hey! I wasn’t expecting to see <em>you</em> here, pussy cat!”</p><p>
  <em> Fuck no. </em>
</p><p>“Fuck off.” Husk sighed as Angel Dust fell into step next to him.</p><p>“Nah.” The spider replied.</p><p>Husk groaned.</p><p>What the fuck was Angel even doing here? Wasn’t he supposed to be working?</p><p>“Why the fuck are ya' here?” Husk asked.</p><p>Angel shrugged, “Street work. No clients have showed up today yet, so I’m bored.”</p><p>“So, what, you gonna hit on me when there’s no other assholes around?” Husk asked.</p><p>Angel just laughed, and Husk grumbled to himself.</p><p>“Nah, don’t worry, babe. I’m just here for some good ol’ chit chat.” Angel replied, “Like I said, I’m bored.”</p><p>“Well go be bored somewhere else.” Husk said, “I’m not in the fuckin’ mood.”</p><p>Angel shrugged, “You’re never in the mood.”</p><p>“Yeah, I wonder why that is…” Husk muttered, speeding up his pace.</p><p>He heard Angel and a voice he didn’t recognize talking behind him, so he guessed a potential client stopped Angel.</p><p>It made a pit form in his stomach, but he tried to ignore it in favor of getting back to the hotel. Because then maybe he could try to take a nap or something.</p><p>But today was shit.</p><p>-</p><p>Husk had, sadly, been unable to take his nap.</p><p>Some dickwads were fucking around the outside of the hotel.</p><p>Normally Husk wouldn’t care, but they were being <em> very </em> loud, and he was pretty sure they were vandalizing the place.</p><p>He didn’t give a fuck about the vandalization, more the noise. It was aggravating.</p><p>If it went on any longer, he had a hunch he’d get a headache. He didn’t need a headache. He already felt like shit.</p><p>It was either leave the room and possibly get yelled at for ditching his job, or it was stay and deal with the noise.</p><p>Or he could confront the fuckers and end it himself.</p><p>But that would be <em> so much work</em>.</p><p>“Ah, Husker! There you are!”</p><p>
  <em> Goddammit motherfucking hell- </em>
</p><p>Alastor strutted up to the bar, his usual grin on display.</p><p>He was up to something. Probably ruining some poor sinner’s day.</p><p>Husk had a hunch he was that poor sinner.</p><p>“Are those hooligans still loitering outside?” Alastor asked, one ear turned in the direction of the assholes in question, leaning over the bar.</p><p>Husk sighed, “Why the fuck are you asking me?”</p><p>“Because you are going to handle them.” Alastor said, as if he were giving Husk a generous gift rather than ordering him to inevitably get into a fight.</p><p>“Fuck off.” Husk said.</p><p>Alastor walked away, unaffected. Husk sighed, because he knew in the end, he had to do it. Even if he desperately didn’t want to. That was the nature of deals with that radio fuckwad.</p><p>So, he begrudgingly got up from his spot at the bar, trudging to the doors of the hotel and feeling more and more like he wanted to scream.</p><p>The demons out there all straightened their posture as the door opened, likely expecting Alastor to step out, but as soon as they saw Husk they just relaxed again, most of them grinning at him almost tauntingly.</p><p>“Get the fuck out of here.” Husk said noncommittally, “Or the Radio Demon will pull some weird ass voodoo shit.”</p><p>The demons - Husk counted five of them - laughed.</p><p>“If we don’t, what’ll <em> you </em> do, kitty kitty?” One of them asked.</p><p>Husk sighed. He didn’t want to fight these dickheads, he was <em> tired</em>.</p><p>“Walk away because I’m too tired and don’t give a shit.” Husk replied, trying to convince them that he even <em> could</em>, “The Radio Demon will deal with you.”</p><p>To prove his point, Husk started to walk back towards the door.</p><p>But either these demons didn’t care, or were looking to get erased, because the next thing Husk knew, he was face down on the floor, the wind knocked out of him as a demon hovered above him.</p><p>Said demon just laughed, and Husk quickly tried to sit up, only for the demon to keep holding him down. It felt hard to breathe.</p><p>He swung his arm back, managing to sock the guy in the face, knocking him over quick enough that Husk could stand up again. He turned around, facing the demons, who watched their friend who was getting off of the ground, his nose bleeding.</p><p>Served the fucker right.</p><p>Another demon lunged at Husk, and he managed to dodge him, before he was suddenly tackled from the back. He flapped his wings and the asshole that had tried that move immediately regretted it, being sent back to the ground.</p><p>Husk looked around frantically, hoping to find a way out of this fight, but there was nothing.</p><p>It was getting harder to breathe, and everything felt even more intense than it should’ve. He chalked it up to still being disoriented from when he was knocked over, but even then he couldn’t be sure.</p><p>Another punch was thrown his way, and this time it hit him square on the nose. He staggered back, before he was pushed to the ground.</p><p>
  <em> Oh fuck oh fuck oh fuck- </em>
</p><p>“Hey assholes!” Someone yelled, “Get the fuck out of here!”</p><p>It was Angel.</p><p>The demons attacking Husk looked at the spider demon, before one of them laughed. He was met with a faceful of bullets.</p><p>The others proceeded to run at that, but Husk couldn’t tear his eyes away from the demon.</p><p>Normally he would be unaffected by a sight like that. He was in Hell, for fuck’s sake, you saw shit like this all the time.</p><p>But it seemed that sight was just that little push needed to make him fall off the deep end.</p><p>“Husk? Husky?” Husk didn’t even realize Angel was speaking to him at first, before he whipped his head around to view Angel, “Ya' good?”</p><p>Husk just stared at the other, chest heaving, and he found it was hard to focus.</p><p>Even looking away he could still picture the bloody face of the demon. In the back of his mind it morphed into others, people he’d known in life who’d had similar bloody ends.</p><p>It was too much, he couldn’t breathe, why couldn’t he breathe, what the fuck what the fuck what thefuckwhatthefuckwhatthefuck<em>whatthefuck- </em></p><p>“<em>Husk </em>.” Angel grabbed Husk’s face, forcing him to look at him and focus, “Breathe.”</p><p>Husk gasped for air, and as he did he realized he felt the familiar sensation of tears. His tears. He was crying.</p><p>At this discovery he felt even more like crying, as more tears spilled from his eyes and he repressed a sob.</p><p>Angel noticed this change, and pulled Husk closer to him. One hand started to pet the cat demon’s head, and another rubbed his back, while the bottom two simply held him.</p><p>Husk sobbed into Angel’s shoulder, hiding his face even more.</p><p>He was shaken and couldn’t stop picturing these bloody sights and he just wanted them to stop, and then here he was blubbering like an idiot and <em> Angel </em> was comforting him. He wanted to crawl into a hole full of booze and drink himself to death, never to be seen again.</p><p>“It’s okay.” Angel said, “Follow my breaths.”</p><p>Husk tried to sync his breathing with the calmer rise and fall of Angel’s chest. It was hard at first, but got easier with time, and he felt himself just start to lean into Angel more as he calmed down. He was warm. It was comforting.</p><p>Angel chuckled, and Husk realized that he’d begun to purr.</p><p>He quickly pulled himself out of Angel’s grasp - though he didn’t really want to - and moved to get up and walk away.</p><p>Angel quickly stood up too, grabbing his Hand before he could go.</p><p>“You are not just walkin' away after that. Are you okay? What the fuck happened?” Angel asked.</p><p>Husk sighed, trying to shake the spider’s hand off of his. But his grip was stronger than that.</p><p>“I mean, you don’t <em> have </em> to tell me, but seeing as I just witnessed you havin' a fucking panic attack I’d like to know.” Angel added.</p><p>“Fuck off.” Husk grumbled, trying to pull himself away more.</p><p>“<em>No.</em>” Angel said, “I wanna make sure you’re okay.”</p><p>“Why do you give a fuck anyway?”<br/>
“Because I give a fuck about <em> you</em>, Husk!”</p><p>Husk looked away, trying to pull away more. Still, Angel continued to grip his hand.</p><p>“You shouldn’t.” Husk said, “It’s a stupid move.”</p><p>“I don’t think it is.” Angel replied, “And frankly, I’ve pulled much stupider moves and been fine. Don’t tell me what I should and shouldn’t do.”</p><p>Husk didn’t reply. He didn’t even fully know why he’d reacted the way he had, and he was tired anyway. And this new information left him reeling.</p><p>“I need a drink.” He groaned.</p><p>“Only if I can have one too.” Angel replied.</p><p>Husk sighed, “Fine.”</p><p>Angel continued to hold his hand as the two walked back into the hotel. Husk pretended he wasn't glad.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Thanks for reading!</p><p>
  <a href="https://linktr.ee/Pheonix_Inside">If you liked this fic, consider following me on Twitter or Tumblr or anywhere else I am</a>
</p></blockquote></div></div>
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